Category Archives: Cloning

Tullis Matson and Dr Gareth Starbuck with Suffolk Punch mare Ruby and her newborn filly foal, who was born in 2020 through the use of sex-sorted semen.

A free webinar on genetic preservation and animal cloning is being hosted by Tullis Matson next week.

In the first British Breeding webinar for 2021, Matson will talk to Gemini Genetics and ViaGen Pets and Equine to explain the concept and applications of animal genetic preservation and animal regeneration (cloning).

Matson, of Stallion AI Services, will describe the process in submitting samples for genetic preservation and the applications of the technology to not only the equine breeding industry but also to the preservation of rare and endangered breeds and species.

Matson was behind the use of sex-sorting of equine semen that resulted in the birth of a Suffolk Punch filly foal last year. With fewer than 72 female Suffolk Punches remaining in Britain and fewer than 300 in the world, every female born is vital to the survival of this endangered and iconic British horse.

He will then hand over to Blake Russell, president of ViaGen Pets and Equine, for an exclusive insight into the world of animal cloning. Live from their premises in Texas, Canada and South Carolina, this webinar will give behind the scenes access to the extensive facilities and technologies. It will cover everything from companion animal cloning to equine cloning and even rare and endangered species regeneration. A live viewing of the worlds first cloned Przewalskis horse foal is also on the agenda.

Pre-registration is essential. Those booking will receive a link and access code for the webinar.

Register for the webinar, on Thursday, January 28 at 7pm (GMT)

Blake Russell is President @ViaGen Pets and Equine, which deliver genetic preservation and cloning services to pet and horse owners worldwide. He also runs an equine breeding program at his ranch in North Texas, where he and his family take care of his prized cloned stallion Pure Tailor Fit, a clone of two-time AQHA Racing World Champion Tailor Fit. Blake has had a successful 25-year career in the animal genetics business working in more than 15 countries. He received his B.S. in Animal Science from Oklahoma State University and his MBA from Emory University.

Tullis Matson is Founder and Managing Director @Stallion AI Services. He began working in racing stables and then running his fathers non-thoroughbred stud at Twemlows Hall, before a study tour of New Zealand where he completed a course on the Artificial Insemination (AI) of horses. On his return, Twemlows Hall Stud Farm began practising AI for the first time. Tullis started Stallion AI Services Ltd in 1996 and this soon developed into taking stallions in for freezing, chilling and fresh insemination. In 2008, Tullis set up Equine Reproduction Supplies which is now the UKs largest distributor of equine artificial insemination equipment and in 2010 was given the exclusive rights to distribute the world-renowned Minitube products in the UK. In 2011 Tullis Matson received the Marsh Christian Award for Conservation in Genetic Bio-Diversity, in recognition of significant technical, scientific and practical contributions to the field of genetic bio-diversity.

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Free webinar on preserving equine genetics and cloning - Horsetalk

The Pyrenean ibex went extinct 21 years ago this month -- and then again 3 years laer.

21 years ago this month, a wild goat species went extinct and kicked off a bizarre but ultimately hopeful scientific adventure.

The Pyrenean ibex became extinct in January of 2000, when a falling tree landed on the last surviving member of the species. Three and a half years later, the Pyrenean ibex became extinct for the second time, when a newborn clone gasped her first and last breaths in a Spanish laboratory. Heres the strange tale of how the Pyrenean ibex became the first extinct species to be cloned and the first species to go extinct twice and what it means for future conservation efforts.

If A Tree Falls In The Forest, Does It Cause An Extinction?

Scientists know exactly what killed Celia, the worlds last wild Pyrenean ibex. Rangers at a Spanish national park found her on January 6, 2000, lying beneath a fallen tree an open and shut case. The real mystery, which ecologists may never definitively solve, is how Celia ended up dying alone, when her species once flourished in the mountains of northern Spain and Portugal and southern France.

Several species of ibex wild mountain goats live across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Theyve coexisted with humans for a long time; people painted ibexes on the walls of caves in southern Europe 30,000 years ago and at sites in Israels Negev Desert at least 10,000 years ago. The subspecies known as the Pyrenean ibex moved into the mountains of northern Iberia and southern France around 18,000 years ago, near the end of the last Ice Age, along with a few other closely related subspecies.

For thousands of years, they thrived. Even in the Middle Ages, historical records tell us that Pyrenean ibex, also called bucardo, grazed the rocky, scrub-dotted mountain pastures in abundance. But their numbers dropped sharply in the 1800s. By 1910 only 40 bucardos remained, sheltered in a national park in northern Spain. Less than a century later, the last of their descendants died and then she was cloned, and then the clone died.

Were Not Going To Stock A Theme Park This Way

Conservationists saw what was coming long before Celias death, but they still came perilously close to missing their chance. Less than a year before the last Pyrenean ibex died, biologists took skin biopsies from her ears and put the tissue in cold storage. Shortly after her death, Spanish government agencies think of them as the Spanish counterparts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services working with a private company called Advanced Cell Technology and other teams of researchers, thawed out the frozen samples and started trying to bring the bucardo back from the dead.

The concept is called de-extinction, and Jurassic Park made it look a lot easier than it actually is.

First, if you want an extinct species to walk the Earth again, you need a place to put it. Ecosystems adapt to the loss of a species in several ways; maybe a new species movies in to fill the empty niche, or maybe the whole food web changes so much that the landscape becomes nearly unrecognizable to its old inhabitants. Thats why de-extinction efforts often start by trying to understand the lifestyles and ecological role of extinct species like the thylacine.

Technically, of course, you could create a thylacine, a woolly mammoth, or a bucardo and keep them in captivity but aside from the ethical arguments, resurrecting a species without reintroducing it to the wild misses most of the point of de-extinction.

The next challenge the one currently facing efforts to renew the northern white rhinoceros population is finding a species that can carry cloned embryos to term. You need a fairly close relative whose babies have a similar gestation period and birth weight, and you need to implant the embryo at just the right moment: its stage of development has to coincide with the surrogate moms reproductive cycle. And the rather surprising problem is that we dont know quite enough about the reproductive cycle of living animals like wild goats and southern white rhinos.

Putting one animals DNA into a cell is actually the easy part, relatively speaking. When the Spanish researchers tried cloning Celia, they produced nearly 500 cloned embryos, and they implanted 154 of them into female goats (some ibexes and some wild/domestic hybrids). Only 5 of those surrogates ended up pregnant, and only 1 managed to give birth.

When Life Doesnt Find A Way

For the first few seconds, it looked like the Pyrenean ibex was going to make a comeback. The cloning team delivered Celias daughter by Cesarean section, and the newborn burcado had a normal heartbeat, wide open eyes, and actively kicking legs. She just couldnt breathe.

Physical defects in the lungs as well as in other organs have also been reported in neonatal cloned sheep that failed to survice, Jose Folch and his colleagues noted in their 2009 paper on the effort.

Later, scientists learned that the cloned goat had been born with an extra lobe in her left lung, which took up too much space in her chest and kept the left lung from inflating properly. All of her other organs looked normal, and her nuclear DNA was identical to Celias, without any potential lethal mutations. After several minutes of severe respiratory distress, the Pyrenean ibex passed into extinction for the second time.

What would life have been like for Celias daughter if she had survived? Its hard to say, but the struggling newborn goat could never have completely revived an extinct species on her own. It takes two, as they say and actually it takes somewhere between 50 and 500, if you want enough genetic diversity to actually keep the species going in the long run.

The best bet would probably have been to cross-breed the cloned burcado with males from another, closely related subspecies of ibex. That way, some of the extinct species genetic diversity would at least get passed along, even if the burcado ended up absorbed into another species and therefore technically still extinct. In other words, de-extinction is complicated, not just technically but philosophically.

Folch and his colleagues concluded, At present, it can be assumed that cloning is not a very effective way to preserve endangered species. [] However, in species as bucardo, cloning is the only possibility to avoid its complete disappearance. To that end, they urged storing tissue and cell samples from endangered species to give future cloning programs a fighting chance.

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The Species That Went Extinct Twice - Forbes

Q: In an effort to spend time "off the grid," I bought a cabin 8 miles from the Canadian border. There is no internet service there, but I'm hoping I can set up a front-door security camera that can be monitored by my Android phone. I thought I could connect the camera and phone via Bluetooth radio signals, but wireless security cameras all seem to need a Wi-Fi connection. What can I do?

Rod Martel, Minneapolis

A: You can stream video from a security camera to your Android phone, but not directly. Instead, you will need to connect both the security camera and phone to a Wi-Fi network. Fortunately, you can set up a Wi-Fi network in your cabin, even without internet access.

Buy a Wi-Fi router and the type of Wi-Fi security camera that can be linked to an Android phone via an app (use your home internet service to download and set up the phone app.) Such cameras are available from several companies, including Wyze Labs (tinyurl.com/y3q74m5y), Blink (tinyurl.com/y5m5cvaf) and Blue (tinyurl.com/yydr7w4g).

Set up the router in your cabin. It will create a local-area network to which a phone and camera can connect. Then set up the camera-to-phone connection within the phone app. For this arrangement to work, the phone must be inside or very near the cabin.

Q: Previously, when I deleted an e-mail on my Mac (using Apple Mail 14.0, and the Big Sur operating system), it went to the trash. That meant I could recover the e-mail if I needed to. But now when I delete an e-mail, it disappears. I've changed the trash setting to "On My Mac," which means deleted e-mails should remain stored in Mac trash until removed. But the setting always reverts to "None," meaning deleted mail isn't stored in the trash. How can I fix this?

Allen Peterson, Mendota Heights

A: Your Mac has suffered what's called a "trash file permission error," which prevents files from being sent to the trash folder. As a result, the deleted files bypass the trash folder and are permanently erased. The solution is to reset the Mac operating system's "permissions," which regulate how files are treated. (For step-by-step directions, see tinyurl.com/y4c678cj).

Q: My PC has a 128-gigabyte SSD (solid-state drive, a computer-chip-based memory unit) that stores Windows and the software that came preinstalled on the computer. I added a 500-gigabyte hard-disk drive on which to put newly installed programs. Unfortunately, the new programs were added to the SSD instead, and now it's almost full. Can I shift these programs to the hard drive without having to reinstall them there?

Mark Frey, Eagan

A: You could, but you shouldn't. To make sure your programs work properly, reinstall them on the hard disk, one at a time. Later, you can uninstall those same programs from the SSD.

The other alternative is to "clone" the SSD. That will copy all programs, data and the Windows operating system from the SSD to the hard drive (see tinyurl.com/y4vxf3mp). While the cloning method is faster, it can create errors in the copied programs. And you will waste additional time weeding out the duplication on the two drives.

E-mail tech questions to steve.j.alexander@gmail.com or write to Tech Q&A, 650 3rd Av. S., Suite 1300, Minneapolis, MN 55488. Include name, city and telephone number.

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Alexander: Wi-Fi works in the wilderness, without internet service - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Bournemouth, UK, 25th January 2021 / SciadNewswire /Solentim, the trusted global leader in cell therapy workflows enabling the creation, isolation and characterization of high value cells, is delighted to launch two new solutions to enhance the development of therapeutic antibodies. ICON is a benchtop system for the rapid stratification of high productivity clones and STUDIUSis a proprietary software platform that delivers unparalleled data on each cells journey through cell line development.

The all-in-one ICON system assesses specific productivity using rapid on-board assays for the three critical quality attributes of titer, cell number and cell viability. Using plate-based imaging for static plate cell counting and cell suspension automated cell counting with viability for fed-batch, ICON generates normalized cell productivity data. This information enables cell line development scientists to separate the promising clones from the rest, saving resources and accelerating workflows.

STUDIUS is Solentims bespoke data management solution for cell line development. The over-arching platform is designed for Solentims instruments to provide control, management and reporting in the pursuit of lead candidates. STUDIUS delivers an unparalleled perspective on the journey of each individual cell, from seeding to selection, and intelligently manages verified information from multiple sources to enable scientists to select high value cells. Importantly, STUDIUS protects data, providing data auditing and integrity with a suite of tools applicable for laboratories working under 21 CFR Part 11 compliance. Using the novel HISTORYTREE visualization, STUDIUS maps each cells journey, presenting all the necessary cell data for regulatory approval in one report.

Dr Mark Truesdale, CEO, Solentim, said: Our cell line development ecosystem of instruments Cell Metric, VIPS and now ICON provides the optimal workflow solution for seeding, growing and selecting the highest value cells with quality evidence of assurance of clonality. Our protected ecosystem ensures data integrity, and our data-driven reporting prepares you for regulatory approval from day one.

To find out how ICON and STUDIUS can take your cell line development workflow to the next level, or to arrange a product demo, please contact us.

Corporate Contacts:Solentim LtdDuncan Borthwick, Global Marketing ManagerT: +44 (0)1202 798510E: duncan.borthwick@solentim.com

PR Contact:Sciad Communications LtdEmma Pickup/Richard AndersonT: +44 (0)20 3405 7892E:solentim@sciad.com

About SolentimSolentim is the trusted global leader in cell therapy workflows enabling the creation, isolation and characterization of high value cells. In the pursuit of new biological medicines, our data rich portfolio of industry accepted technologies drives accelerated development of Master Cell Banks. For our customers,whichincludemost of the worlds leading pharmaceutical and biotherapeutics companies,we arethe partner of choicefor facilitatingthehighestlevel of assurance in cell line developmentfor therapeutic protein and viral vector production.

Our portfolio of proven and innovative instruments (including VIPS, Cell Metric, Cell MetricCLD and ICON) are designed for single cell cloning and assurance of monoclonality.Combined with enabling reagents (includingInstiGRO and Leap-InTransposase) from our partners, and our unparalleled domain expertise,we transformthe speed and efficiency ofclonally-derivedMasterCellBank development. Our customers trust in our technologyto ensure they areconfidently prepared for regulatory review.

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Solentim sets new standards in productivity with the launch of ICON and STUDIUS; accelerating assu - PharmiWeb.com

The latest Voice Cloning Market Research comprises some significant activities of the todays market size for the global Voice Cloning market. Moreover, it provides a point-by-point analysis based on a comprehensive study of market elements such as market size, development situation, potential opportunities and analysis of the operating landscape as well as trends.

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Significant Competitors Covered in this report :

International Business Corporation, Google, Inc., Lyrebird, Nuance Communication, Baidu, Microsoft Corporation, Amazon Web Services, AT&T Inc., Smartbox Assistive Technology, and Acapela Group.

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The report offers an in-depth analysis of Voice Cloning industries, placing them in the readers perspective, conveying accurate market information and adding valuable and well-informed data. It examines the effect of mechanical progress, changes in propensities to speculation, and the top-down outlines of the product specification. This report is based on the Voice Cloning-business status, presents volume and value, key market, type of product, consumers, regions and key players.

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Voice Cloning Competitive Analyses in the Marketplace:

The Voice Cloning Industry is usually rewarding due to the presence of several accumulated players and their steady development of marketing strategies to expand their market share However, the marketable retailers are obsessed with value, quality, brand, product differentiation and product portfolio. The sellers progressively insist on the personalization of the products thanks to the customer connection.

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Table of Contents:

Global Voice Cloning Market Analysis 2020, With Top Companies, Production, Revenue, Consumption, Price and Growth Rate

1 Market Scope2 Regional Market3 Global Voice Cloning Market Assessment by Type4 Global Voice Cloning Market Assessment by Application5 North America6 Asia7 Europe8 Middle East and Africa9 South America10 Global Voice Cloning Average Price Trend11 Value Chain (Impact of COVID-19)12 Voice Cloning Competitive Analysis13 Conclusion

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By Component (Solutions, and Components), Deployment (On-Premise, and Cloud), Industry Vertical (BFSI, Healthcare, IT & Telecommunication, Travel & Hospitality, Media & Entertainment and Others)

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*What will the market growth rate of Voice Cloning market in 2024?*What are the major factors driving the global Voice Cloning market?*Who are the leading manufacturers in this market space?*Who are the traders, distributors, and dealers of the market?*What are the market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Voice Cloning market?*What is the revenue, sales, and price analysis of leading manufacturers of this market?*What are the market opportunities and threats to be taken into account by the vendors in the global Voice Cloning market?

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Voice Cloning Market 2020 Voice Cloning Market Size, Growth, Demand, Opportunities & Forecast To 2025 Voice Cloning Market International Business...

Last week Marvel revealed to the world that they were rebooting the Clone Saga storyline but not with Peter Parker, but with having Miles Morales take on some clones of himself in a brand new storyline.

Writer Saladin Ahmeds acclaimed run on MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN will hit a new highpoint this April with the CLONE SAGA, a new arc that promises to be Miles Morales most thrilling adventure yet. One of the most talked-about comic book storylines of the nineties, the mega-popular Clone Saga took over the pages of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, shocking readers month after month. Now, this iconic saga will beMiles Morales-stylebeginning in a special oversized anniversary issue: MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN #25.

After months of buildup, the Clone Saga will be the culmination of many of the ongoing story threads that have been haunting Miles since the very beginning of Ahmeds run. Readers will finally see the full extent of the Assessors meddling as his clone creations run rampant through Brooklyn. Designed by superstar artist, Marvel Stormbreaker Carmen Carnero, prepare to meet three distinct Miles clones, each one destined to turn Miles Super Hero career upside down.

Miles first fought one of his clones back in Miles Morales: Spider-Man Issue 19

When Peter Parker faced his own Clone Saga years ago, he was taking part in what was already one of the most iconic traditions in comicsthe hero battling a version of themselves. Since the very first issue of MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN, Ive known that I wanted put Miles through that iconic wringer in his own distinctive way, Ahmed says. Miles CLONE SAGA is a story that has been months, even years, in the making. Weve been planting its seeds throughout the series, from the horrors of being abducted by the Assessor to the confrontations and sacrifices of the Ultimatum epic. Moments from the past will come back to haunt Miles, and the events of the story will ensnare everyone from his baby sister to Peter Parker (who knows a thing or two about dealing with clones). The ramifications will be felt for years, and it all starts in April! If you thought the first Clone Saga was controversial, wait until you read what Saladin and Carmen do. Editor Nick Lowe.

Miles was kidnapped by the Assessor and held hostage for a few issues back in Mile Morales: Spider-Man #8 & #9. The bulk of the first issue saw Miles mostly strapped to tables, having tests run on him and (seemingly) fluids taken for further testing. He even ran through some hoops, fighting robots, testing his abilities, and even an escape attempt, which are all further tests to document his abilities. The second issue sees his rescue by his father and uncle, but perhaps raises an interesting question that this new storyline might address; Is the Miles that was rescued and then starred in the next 10 issues of the series even the original Miles? We know that clones of Miles were developed by The Assessor as Miles Morales: Spider-Man #19 saw Miles fight one of them, known as Asset 42 and revealed to have been created at the behest of Ultimatum aka the evil Miles Morales as previously seen in Spider-Men. When Miles fights this clone, however, he punches him so hard that his entire body disintegrates into a mud-like-substance, though Miles alludes to it looking like something else. So what can we infer from all of this? There were seemingly at least 42 attempts at cloning Miles, and perhaps even more in the days after.

Amazing Spider-Man Issue 149, the final issue in the original Clone Saga in 1973

This is not the first time that Marvel or Spider-Man writers have tried their hands at the Clone Saga storyline. The original was done back in 1973, which ran through Amazing Spider-Man issues 139 and 150, which saw the return of Gwen Stacy from the dead after the events of Amazing Spider-Man 121 where she died at the hands of the Green Goblin, a scene played out many times in other Spider-Man related media. It was revealed through this storyline that a new Villain by the name of The Jackel, aka Professor Miles Warren, had perfected the cloning process and brought Gwen back as a test subject, thus leading to The Jackel trapping Spider-Man and making a clone of him. In the final issue of the story arc, a bomb explosion leaves only one Spider-Man standing, with the identity of the real Spider-Man left untold.

The Clone Saga from 1996, the one everyone remembers and hates

In 1996, the Clone Saga returned with the appearance of Ben Riley, known as the Scarlet Spider (who had a popular run of books of his own), who had been the Spider-Man thought to have been killed in the first storyline. Over this two-year run, this Clone Saga brought in the idea that Ben Riley might be the original Peter Parker, meaning everything we had seen from Issue 150 through to Issue 394 was done with a clone living under the name of Peter Parker. We then spend all of 150+ issues (Amazing Spider-Man Issue 394 through 418, plus issues from Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, and many, many more Spider-Man and non-Spider-Man series) finding out the whole thing was a plot from The Jackel once again, this time teaming up with a rejected Spider-Man clone called Kaine. But the final twist comes from The Green Goblin, who was the mastermind of the whole thing from the very beginning as another plot to mess with Peters mind. Things end with Peter being the original all along and Ben being the clone. The Clone Saga is considered the second-worst Spider-Man storyline ever written due to its complex and headache-inducing writing and plot twists, with the only thing worse being the One More Day/Brand New Day storyline in 2008.

The Ultimate Clone Saga from 2006, not great, but better than anything before it

The last time Marvel decided to do the Clone Saga story was in Ultimate Spider-Man, the second volume in the Ultimate Universe Spider-Man series. Running from Ultimate Spider-Man Issue 97 through Issue 104 (2006) this more modern retelling of The Clone Saga was more based around modern DNA cloning ideas. The story saw The Scorpion be revealed as a clone of Spider-Man with him sharing 94.2% of Peter Parkers DNA. As a result of this, we see the usual tropes of MJ being kidnapped, new clones being introduced (Tarantula and Kaine), and people returning from the dead (Gwen Stacy & Peters father Richard Parker), along with some interesting twists. The twist this time around were things like Ben Riley being a lab-assistant and not a clone, Doctor Octopus working with the CIA, Miles Warren just being there but ultimately doing nothing, Gwen Stacy turning into Carnage, and MJ getting injected with the OZ serum (the same OZ chemical that game Peter his powers through a spider-bite) and turning into Red DemoGoblin. This version of the storyline was still panned by a lot of critics, but has been accepted as the better version of events thanks to the great writing in the Ultimate Spider-Man series at the time.

The newest version of the Clone Saga, featuring Miles Morales as the lead/victim, shall begin with Miles Morales: Spider-Man Issue 25, in comic shops April 28, 2021.

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Marvel to retread the Clone Saga with Miles Morales - The Outerhaven

Its almost 25 years since the most famous clone on Earth, Dolly the sheep, was born on a farm in Scotland. It was one small step for lamb, one giant leap for lambkind. Along with the celebrity bleater came promises of innovative applications, but at the time, no one really knew how cloning would come to be used.

Now, cloning is finally finding its niche. As a growing number of species are cloned, including camels, cats and cattle, companies are springing up to offer commercial cloning services. The practice has become big business.

Around the globe, hundreds of domestic and agricultural animals are cloned every day. As wild species start to be cloned too, its thought the technique could even help conservation.

But the ethical issues remain as large and divisive as the day that Dolly was born. So how is cell biologys bte noire making a difference and what should we make of these genetic doppelgngers?

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1 Were already cloning endangered animals

Kurt was cloned to increase the genetic diversity of Przewalskis horses Scott Stine

In August 2020, a healthy clone of the endangered Przewalskis horse (pronounced shuh-VAL-skees) was born in Texas. Przewalskis horses, which are native to the steppes of central Asia, are the last truly wild horse species. Around 2,000 remain, but they lack essential genetic diversity because theyre all descended from just 12 wild-caught individuals.

The little foal, called Kurt, was cloned using 40-year-old frozen cells from a stallion whose genes arent well represented in todays population. Because Kurt is genetically identical to the stallion, the hope is that when he grows up and breeds, Kurt will restore this lost genetic diversity via his descendants.

The colt is expected to be one of the most genetically important individuals of his species, says Bob Wiese, chief life sciences officer at San Diego Zoo Global, who was involved in the project.

Other wild species have also been successfully cloned, including the coyote, the African wildcat and a rare Southeast Asian cow called the banteng. But many conservationists oppose cloning because they see it as an unproven, expensive distraction from tried and tested conservation methods, such as protected areas and anti-poaching initiatives.

2 And extinct animals too (but not dinosaurs)

Mammoth researcher Prof Adrian Lister with Lyuba, a baby woolly mammoth that died around 40,000 years ago Shutterstock

Therell be no real-life Jurassic Park. Sorry. Dinosaurs are off limits because their DNA is too long gone. But more recently extinct animals, such as the woolly mammoth, could theoretically be on the cards. All thats needed is a source of DNA (from say, the cells in a frozen carcass or a museum specimen) and a closely related living species to help nurture the cloned embryo.

For the woolly mammoth, this would mean transferring a clone into the womb of a surrogate Asian elephant. The problem is Asian elephants are endangered. Its a major sticking point for critics, who also question the value of the de-extinction of species whose natural habitats disappeared a long time ago.

Advocates, however, suggest that certain animals, dubbed keystone species, could engineer their own ecosystems. If the woolly mammoth were released into northern Siberia, for example, its actions could potentially create a lush grassland that could benefit many other species.

3 Cloning your pet isnt such a good idea

Little Juice, seen here at 24 days old, is a clone of Juice, a star of film and TV in China Alamy

At least three pet-cloning companies now exist and for upwards of $40,000 (just over 30,000) theyll create a genetic replica of your beloved pet dog or cat. Singer Barbra Streisand and fashion designer Diane von Furstenburg have both bought clones of their pet dogs, for example, but the practice is fraught with ethical concerns.

In one cloning advert, from the Chinese company Sinogene, a grieving pet owner finds solace when a guardian pooch angel beams her doe-eyed ghost dog back to Earth in new puppy form. Its a carefully choreographed tear-jerker, but cloning cant even guarantee to produce faithful lookalikes, let alone animals with identical personalities.

When people are faced with losing a pet, theyre so vulnerable, says bioethicist Jessica Pierce, from the Center for Bioethics and Humanities, University of Colorado, Denver. Jumping into that abyss and saying we can fix it for you; you dont have to say goodbye is just so wrong.

In addition, cloning is a notoriously inefficient process, whatever the species. It takes multiple dog surrogates to achieve a single, successful pregnancy and dozens of cloned embryos to achieve a single, healthy puppy. Dogs die as bundles of cells in the culture dish, embryos in the womb and, more rarely, as puppies after birth.

Its creating a whole canine underclass thats invisible, says Pierce. Why go down this route when there are millions of deserving dogs in shelters?

4 But cloned sniffer dogs are already patrolling some airports

Staff from the Russian Military Historical Society collect dogs cloned by Sooam Biotech Alamy

Some of the companies that clone pet dogs also clone working animals, such as drug-detection dogs. Thats the number one thing were doing with dog cloning, says cell biologist Dr P Olof Olsson, at the Abu Dhabi Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea.

Also known as Sooam Biotech, the company has produced hundreds of canine clones and many are now in active service. If youve ever collected a suitcase from the carousel at Seouls Incheon Airport, chances are it was checked by a cloned sniffer.

The idea is to produce animals that are genetically predisposed to learn well. It takes time and money to train a sniffer dog, but even with the best training and the brightest animals, only around half of conventionally bred dogs manage to qualify. Cloned dogs do much better.

80 to 90 per cent end up going into service, says Olsson, and weve been told multiple times that our clones respond better to training. Here, the method has become a way to minimise doggy dropouts and reduce costs.

5 You might soon be eating clones

Beef cattle at a breeding demonstration area in Inner Mongolia Getty Images

Cloned cats and dogs are one thing, but would you want to eat a clone? In China, where demand for prime-quality beef is rocketing, another cloning company thinks its customers will.

Boyalife Genomics, which works with the Abu Dhabi Biotech Research Foundation, is building a $30m (approximately 23m) cloning facility in the coastal city of Tianjin where it plans to clone some of the worlds finest beef cattle.

The goal, according to the companys chief executive Xu Xiaochun, is to start by producing 100,000 cloned cattle embryos annually, then increase that to a million. Eventually the firm hopes to be responsible for 5 per cent of Chinas premium slaughtered cattle and by scaling production up, Boyalife hopes to bring the cost of cloning down.

Read more about the future of food:

6 Semen from cloned stud animals is available to buy online

Semen samples collected from stud bulls in Preska, Slovenia Alamy

In agriculture, clones of high-value breeding animals are being produced for breeding purposes. For example, Final Answer was a naturally conceived bull so buff he became one of the most prolific sires of the Angus cattle breed. During his life, he produced more than 500,000 units of semen, which were used to father hundreds of thousands of offspring via artificial insemination.

Cloning is relatively routine in the cattle industry, so as Final Answer entered his twilight years, breeders made a copy. In 2014, when Final Answer finally died, Final Answer II took over.

His sperm is no different from that of the original, and now a single shot retails online for around $22 (almost 17). Hundreds of other, similarly valuable cattle have also been cloned, so here the technique is being used as an insurance policy.

Having an heir and a spare is not a bad concept, says agricultural geneticist Alison van Eenennaam, from the University of California, Davis.

7 While cloned ponies are being ridden on the polo field

Four of the six clones of the star polo pony Cuartetera, produced by Crestview Genetics Getty Images

In 2016, Adolfo Cambiaso the Lionel Messi of the polo world made history when he rode not one, but six cloned polo ponies, in the final of the prestigious Argentine Open Championship. The ponies were all copies of the same animal, an exceptionally agile mare named Cuartetera, and they were produced by Cambiasos own cloning company, Crestview Genetics.

The practice has fuelled concerns that it offers an unfair advantage to those with the funds to afford it, but the body that governs Argentinian polo is remarkably relaxed. It basically permits any breeding technique that elevates the level of play, cloning included.

Meanwhile, other sporting equines have been cloned, including thoroughbreds and jumping horses, and the relevant governing bodies all have their own rulings. There is, for example, no reason why a cloned horse couldnt compete in the Olympic Games, although this has yet to happen.

But no one knows just how identical or otherwise these clones will really be. Every living thing is subject to the same interacting forces of genetics and the environment or nature and nurture.

So, although clones may have the same nuclear DNA as the animal theyre derived from, this isnt enough to guarantee an exact replica. Some characteristics, such as muscle mass, are more heritable than others, such as personality. The environment that an animal is raised in, before and after birth, can affect the activity of key genes with dramatic repercussions.

This is why some of Cuarteteras clones have different markings, why some cloned sniffer dogs never graduate from training and why cloned pets will never be the same as the original. Just like identical human twins, cloned non-human animals may be similar, but theyll never be truly identical to each another.

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Rise of the Clones: 7 ways cloning is already happening - BBC Focus Magazine

David Cronenberg's body horror movie The Fly spawned only one sequel, The Fly II, but another was planned that never came to fruition titled Flies.

David Cronenberg's body horror movieThe Flymay have been followed up byThe Fly II,but an unmade sequel titledFliesnever came to fruition. The 1986 has grown to cult classic status for its impeccable storyline and nuanced approach to the horrific transformation of the human body under grueling circumstances. Unfortunately, its sequel did not have as much success and has been remarked as a large disappointment to fans of the original. The unmade third movie in the series intended on remedying these issues, but it was never made. Here's everything we know about Flies.

The Flyfollows Seth Brundle, portrayed by Jeff Goldblum, as he develops teleportation pods that allow for an individual to transport between one pod to the next. Shortly after starting a romantic relationship with Veronica "Ronnie" Quaife (Geena Davis, Beetlejuice), he uses the device to transport himself, but a common housefly that's trapped in one of the pods causes their DNA to merge. As the movie progresses, Seth begins to delve into a total loss of sanity as his body mutates and ultimately transforms into a horrifying fly creature. David Cronenberg is known for his incredibly nuanced body horror movies. They commonly pertain to the exploration of gender, sexuality, and social as well as political discourse. In regards toThe Fly,it was created and released in the midst of the AIDS public health crisis and, therefore, is considered a metaphor for the virus's impact on the body. While this was not Cronenberg's intent, which was the depiction of terminal illnesses and deterioration, but its cultural context and impact resulted in this comparison.

Related: Why Science Fiction Has Influenced Horror Movies

Cronenberg was not involved inThe Fly II.Chris Walas, the special effects artist behindThe Fly,directed the sequel while Mick Garris, Frank Darabont (The Blob, The Shawshank Redemption) as well as Ken and Jim Wheat (A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) wrote the screenplay. While Geena Davis was set to return, she did not once she found out that Ronnie would be killed in the opening sequence. Rather than play into its cult status by bringing in the original's key characters, the sequel focused on Seth and Ronnie's son, who inherited his human-fly DNA. The plot forThe Fly IIwas interesting enough, but it wasn't executed in a way that honored the original, whichFliescould've done.

The primary point ofFlieswas to retcon the impact thatThe Fly IIhad on the original movie. Rather than focus solely on Seth and Ronnie's son, it was set to follow her right after the events ofThe Flywith the birth of their twin sons. It would follow the two as they reached puberty, where their inherited DNA from Seth would cause their bodies to exhibit similar mutations to their father's. This wasn't the original script forFlies,but it is the most current iteration of it.

Flieswas originally pitched shortly after the release of the original movie and was written by Tim Lucas. It would've starred Geena Davis reprising her role as Ronnie. After the discovery of Seth's teleportation pods, scientists altered them into cloning devices, which is the reason behind the plurality of the title. Goldblum would've returned as well, but only to act as a voiceover to explain that his character's consciousness was trapped inside of the computer systems that run the cloning technology. Ronnie and Seth could've been reunited, as a cloned version of his human body would've offered a new host to his consciousness.Fliesnever came to fruition, as the filmmaker wanted to go in a different route that resulted inThe Fly 2being made.

WhileFlieshas yet to happen, it could be next on the list of 1980s horror movies receiving the reboot or sequel treatment. Similar toDavid Gordon Green'sHalloween,Fliescould retconThe Fly IIby completely erasing its events from the series' canon. It is entirely possible that either script could be done as well. While a sequel was neve truly necessary, the fact that such a poorly done one exists right now, means that there should be something done to remedy its mistakes. If a reboot or sequel is made in the near future,The Fly'strue sequel could be about Ronnie and Seth's twins or about cloning pods. As of this writing, there is no news on whether or notFlieswill ever happen, but there is hope.

More: How David Cronenberg's The Fly Remake Improved On The Original Movie

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Marian Phillips works as a Horror Movie Features Writer for Valnet, Inc at ScreenRant.

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The Fly: Everything We Know About The Unmade Sequel - Screen Rant

Hasitha Fernando explores Marvels Time Variance Authority

A colossal tidal wave of Marvel related goodies debuted during Disney Investor Day 2020 this month. But out of this plethora of awesome new reveals, one of the clear standouts was what Kevin Feige and company gave fans on the new Disney+ TV series based on the fan favorite god of mischief Loki. Theres a lot to unpack in this full-length trailer chock full of Easter Eggs and comic book references, but one detail which stood out -larger than life if I might add was the heavy involvement of a certain organization in the proceedings of this TV show. And by the looks of it, it seems as if our bendy horned trickster will be reluctantly assisting said organization in capturing an as-of-yet-unidentified supervillain (Sophia Di Martino as Lady Loki maybe?) in exchange for a reduced sentence for detrimental time crimes committed in his devious past. And now without further ado, let us dive right in and shed some light on this enigmatic entity called the TVA.

The TVA or the Time Variance Authority is the organization responsible for monitoring the innumerable timelines of the Marvel multiverse and keeping temporal interference to a bare minimum. In more simpler terms they can be described as a form of time police that act as the authority to whom individuals who mess around with time travel-altering the past or future-are answerable to. Since their first appearance in Thor #372 in October 1982, created by Walt Simonson and Sal Buscema, they have metamorphosed into an important component of the greater Marvel Comics universe. However, the TVAs influence over time is not absolute. And there have been several instances in the past where theyve been on a collision course with the likes of Kang the Conqueror, Alioth, the Delubric Constortium and Revelation throughout the timescape.

The TVAs base of operations is located in the Null-Time Zone dimension, a realm that exists outside of normal space and time. Time passes differently in the TVA, quips Owen Wilsons Mobius M. Mobius in the trailer and his comment couldnt be further from the truth. In the comics Mobius M. Mobius is an executive in the senior management of the Time Variance Authority who made his comic book debut in the pages of Fantastic Four #353. There are several administrators like him who oversee the bureaucratic machinations of the TVA and report to their director Mr. Alternity. But the real heavy lifting is done by a faceless group of clones called the Chronomonitors, who sit before computers in the Hall of Chronometry and monitor each event that transpires in the timeline theyre designated to. There is a Chronomonitor for every timeline in existence, with one being created every time a new reality pops into existence. The TVAs warriors are the Minutemen, an army of soldiers clad in armour, created through cutting edge cloning and advanced cybernetics. The Minutemen are led by the Justices, temporal patrol officers with the authority to time travel and solve the TVAs problems; the most well-known of their number is Justice Peace, who comes off more as a colourful version of Judge Dredd in the comics.

So, what significance does the TVAs debut in the new Disney+ TV series Loki hold in the context of the ever-expanding Marvel Comics Universe? For one, the TVAs past dealings with Kang the Conqueror would probably mean that this mysterious organization could show up in some shape or form in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, whose big bad was recently confirmed to be that particular villain. And with Kangs penchant for engaging in time-hopping shenanigans, the possibility of Scott Lang and company bumping into an official from the TVA is very high indeed. Jennifer Walters a.k.a She-Hulk is another character who has had previous brushes with the TVA. During Dan Slotts 2005 run of She-Hulk, the TVA puts the superhero lawyer on trial for attempting to warn fellow Avenger Hawkeye of his impending death. If Feige and the showrunners of She-Hulk have already decided to base their new TV show on Slotts work, chances are, that the Time Variance Authority could make an appearance there as well.

Are you looking forwarding to seeing the introduction of the TVA in Marvels Loki? Do you think they will play a larger role in the MCU going forward? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth

Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.

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An Introduction to Marvel's Time Variance Authority: The Mysterious Organisation of Disney+'s Loki Series - Flickering Myth

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You cant believe everything you reador see. Social media is rife with manipulated or Photoshopped images. Here are some telltale signs youre looking at an altered image.

Have you ever seen an image that just doesnt look right? Trusting your gut might not be the most scientific approach, but youre probably better at spotting a fake than you realize. If you see an image that sounds alarm bells, you might want to look a bit closer. Youll probably spot some telltale signs that its been manipulated.

Airbrushed images often fall into uncanny valley territory. Even if you have perfect skin, most light sources cast small shadows on fine wrinkles, pores, and other slight imperfections. When these imperfections are digitally removed, so is the appearance of natural lighting.

Professional retouchers often strike a balance between perfection and realism, but amateurs and mobile apps rarely do. Apps, in particular, depend on existing skin tones to determine which parts of a frame to retouch. This often results in a heavy-handed airbrushing effect thats easy to spot.

Sometimes, you might need to look beyond the subject of a photo to see the full picture. This is especially true when it comes to warping, which is when someone uses a tool to grab an area of an image and move, shrink, or enlarge it.

Look for straight lines in the background and see whether they conform to the laws of physics. For example, if someone is sharing an image of their bulging biceps, and a row of tiles in the background is unnaturally warped near said bicep, that photo has been edited to accentuate muscle growth.

This same technique is often used to exaggerate weight loss or the effects of slimming clothing.

Cloning is a basic Photoshop technique that involves duplicating part of an image. Its often used to remove minor blemishes from skin by cloning another section in its place. This also eliminates telltale signs of airbrushing.

This technique is also used in other ways. The object thats duplicated could be a section of a crowd, a tree, or even stars in the night sky. Its an effective way of making a landscape photo pop by dropping in a few more colorful flowers. You can also make a football stadium or event look a lot more crowded than it actually is.

The giveaway in this instance is recognizable patterns appearing in the image. Look for unique aspects in a prominent detail, and then see if you can spot that detail in other parts of the image. It could be someone wearing a unique hat in a crowd, a particular pattern of stars (or constellation), or a tree with the same lighting that appears elsewhere in the image.

This will only apply to the very worst image manipulations, but dont forget to look for a shadow. Its a rookie mistake, but one people still make. Sometimes, an object in an image wont cast a shadow at all.

All objects in a scene should cast a shadow. Plus, if you take a group photo at 5 p.m., you expect the setting sun to cast a longer shadow than an image shot at midday. This can be harder to spot in artificially lit scenes. However, if you see the sun, you should make sure the length and angle of shadows match.

Also, look at how shadows are cast on each subject. If you have a textured object, like a rock, the shadows should look very similar to other textured objects in the image.

When an image has gone through the cycle of being shared, saved, and reuploaded to social media a few times, youll often see compression artifacts. You might spot some unsightly fuzzy sections and colors fringing on hard edges. If an image has been touched up, similar unsightly artifacts often appear right along the edge of the edit.

This is even easier to spot when combined with unusually smooth or solid areas. For example, you might see this if someone attempted to remove text from a white object by painting over it with a white paintbrush. JPEG artifacts often stick to the edge of a painted area like glue.

Any unusually smooth areas with unnaturally solid colors should ring alarm bells, even on high-quality JPEGs.

EXIF data is metadata stored along with a photo when its taken. This includes information like which camera was used, the focal length, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and so on. Location data in the form of real-world coordinates are also often stored in a photo.

To understand EXIF data, you have to understand a bit more about photography. If the image youre looking at was shot with a very shallow depth of field (like f/1.8), youd expect a very blurry background. A slow shutter speed means any moving objects will be blurred. A long focal length (like 300mm) should compress the background and make a flatter image with a reduced depth of field.

If these parameters (and any others) dont match the image you see, its possible the image has been manipulated. Similarly, EXIF data can contradict a story. For example, say two images were shot close together to portray an extended period of time. If youre lucky enough to have access to thegeolocation data, jump on Google Maps and check out the location using Street View or satellite imagery.

Keep in mind that any editing tools that have been used on a photo, including Photoshop or GIMP, will also be listed under EXIF data. However, this doesnt necessarily mean an image has been manipulated to deceive. There are many legitimate reasons photographers use photo-editing tools, like making minor touchups or for batch edits.

In addition to zooming in and pixel-peeping to spot obvious signs of image editing, there are tools that can help you spot a fake, as well. The most basic of these is a website called Image Edited? that judges whether an image has been retouched.

Image Edited? uses most of the techniques weve covered above to check and report whether any inconsistencies were found. The tool examines EXIF data for inconsistencies in areas like camera models and color spaces. It also looks for JPEG artifacts, oversaturation, patterns that suggest parts of an image have been cloned, and mismatches in directional light.

We tested an obviously manipulated image and Image Edited? reported the image had probably been manipulated because pixels only match software editors.

FotoForensics is similar to Image Edited?, except it leaves the analysis up to you. Instead of making a decision for you, the website produces an Error Level Analysis (ELA) visualization. This can highlight potentially Photoshopped elements you might not catch with the naked eye.

According to the ELA tutorial, you should look around the picture and identify the different high-contrast edges, low-contrast edges, surfaces, and textures. Compare those areas with the ELA results. If there are significant differences, then it identifies suspicious areas that may have been digitally altered.

The best way to get the most out of FotoForensics is to comb through the examples given to learn exactly what to look for. We tried this one with a manipulated photo of a crashed truck with good results. The edited parts of the image clearly contrasted with the rest of the image (see above).

When all else fails, why not search for it? Google Image Search allows you to perform a reverse image search to find other instances of the same image online, as well as images that look similar.This should help you find websites that clearly state the image is a fake, or you might even find the original, unedited version.

You can also search for information about a questionable image on fact-checking websites. For example, lets say theres an image that claims to show little green aliens on the streets of New York City. You could search little green aliens new york to find analyses of the photo, and youd likely find fact-checking articles explaining that those little green aliens arent real.

Thats an extreme example, but the same technique applies to other suspicious or controversial images floating around the web. Do a quick search and a bit of research before you believe what someone claims to be showing.

Photoshopped images are nothing new. Theyve been around and reshared since the birth of the internet. Many people have fallen victim to them in the past. And, as increasingly sophisticated techniques become more accessible, many will fall for them again in the future.

However, now you know what to look for, so youll be better equipped to analyze an image for signs of tampering.

If want to learn how to spot video fakes (or deepfakes),as well, check out this article next!

RELATED: What Is a Deepfake, and Should I Be Concerned?

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How to Tell If an Image Has Been Manipulated or Photoshopped - How-To Geek